2008 Atlantic Hockey Tournament
The 2008 Atlantic Hockey Tournament took place between March 7 and March 16, 2008. The regular season champions were the Army Black Knights. The Air Force Falcons became the first team to appear two years in a row in the Atlantic Hockey tournament finals, and the first team to repeat as Atlantic Hockey champions. The seeds for the tournament were: # Army Black Knights # RIT Tigers # Air Force Falcons # Sacred Heart Pioneers # Mercyhurst Lakers # Canisius Golden Griffins # Connecticut Huskies # Bentley Falcons # Holy Cross Crusaders # American International Yellow Jackets Regular season Quarterfinals The quarterfinals were a best-of-three round played at the home rinks of the top five seeds. The games took place on March 7 and 8, with the third game on March 9 where necessary. American International at Army Army moves on and will play the winner of the 4/5 play-in game in the first semifinal. Holy Cross at RIT RIT has never lost to Holy Cross since moving up to Division I (6-0-0 over two years, including these two games). In the first game, RIT scored first, but allowed goals in the final minute of the first period and the final second of the second period. In the third, RIT tied the score three times, but twice Holy Cross answered quickly to retake the lead. The 4-4 tie held until near the end of the first overtime, when RIT's Matt Crowell beat Adam Roy for the game-winner. Senior Matt Smith had a hat trick for RIT, the school's first at Division I. The second game again started out with an RIT goal, giving them a lead which was built to 3-1. Holy Cross again had an answer, scoring two goals within a minute of each other to tie the game, then another to take the lead going into the third period. RIT got the tying goal and the teams again headed to overtime. Overtime was much shorter this time, as Matt Smith scored in the fifth minute to polish off his second straight hat trick and a six-goal weekend. RIT moves on and will play Air Force in the second semifinal. Bentley at Air Force Air Force moves on and will play RIT in the second semifinal. Connecticut at Sacred Heart Sacred Heart moves on and will play Mercyhurst in the 4/5 play-in game. Canisius at Mercyhurst Mercyhurst moves on and will play Sacred Heart in the 4/5 play-in game. Play-in game The teams would have been re-seeded prior to this round, but all five higher seeds won their quarterfinal series. The play-in game is between the two lowest remaining seeds; the winner faces the top remaining seed. The game was held Friday, March 14. Mercyhurst vs. Sacred Heart Mercyhurst will face Army the next day in the first semifinal. Semi-finals Mercyhurst vs. Army Mercyhurst moves on to face Air Force in the final. Air Force vs. RIT Air Force moves on to defend their title against Mercyhurst. Final Air Force vs. Mercyhurst Air Force captures its second straight Atlantic Hockey championship and the conference's autobid to the NCAA tournament. All-Tournament Team Brent Olson is the Tournament MVP. Category:Atlantic Hockey tournaments Atlantic Hockey